On June 28 and 29, your bargaining team met with the Good Samaritan Society to continue negotiations.

Good headway was made as the employer engaged in deeper conversations with us and showed real interest in understanding our point of view.

We signed off on the Preamble and Application with minimal changes. This item outlines both parties’ responsibilities to good labour relations and quality patient care.

However, the employer did counter our proposal to hold both parties responsible for exercising our respective rights “in good faith and in a fair and reasonable manner” by excluding “in good faith” from their proposal, even though this language is in many collective agreements and is mutually beneficial.

We’re hopeful the employer will come to see the value of contract language that encourages collaborative problem solving.

We are feeling optimistic about bargaining and hope to have more progressive conversations with the employer on Oct. 24 and 25 when we’ll reconvene meetings.

If you have any comments or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact one of your bargaining team members.